For as long as I have been a Porsche guy, I have wanted a cabriolet. In the 80s the Convertible D was the car to buy. It is basically a Speedster with a taller windshield. And, much to my despair, they were cheap then. At least that is how I remember it. Of course, in retrospect, everything looks cheap. I still never bought one, and have regretted it ever since.

A few months ago, I had a thought: Maybe it was time to look into a convertible 356. It was a brief idea, that I quickly dismissed from my head, assuming they were well out of my price range. Over the past 30 years, I had’t paid a bit of attention to the market for 356s. But, I knew they had appreciated significantly. I could probably only afford a project car. I don’t really need another project. Besides, I have Charlie, and don’t really need anything else. I quickly went through the logic, and quickly dismissed the idea.

Then my friend, Carl, and I went to to the Chattanooga Auto Festival. The event isn’t something I normally would attend since it is pretty far from home, and falls in October, which tends to be very busy for me. But, Luft was doing an exhibition at the show, and the Great Race had asked me to bring Charlie, my ’69 912, up to the festival to do ride-alongs. So I jumped at the chance to go to a show I had never been to before.

The Luft exhibit had a number of amazing 356s, in addition to a 904 and other wonderful race cars. Then at the Friday evening Luft show, I came across a white outlaw Convertible D, in the featured car lot, that really epitomized my idea of a 356. Lowered, Fuchs, 911 engine, speedster seats. The works. I was in love!

Despite all of the amazing cars in the Luft display, not to mention in the festival, I couldn’t get it out of my mind all weekend long. I tried. Honest. I even almost bought my wife a VW Bug at the Mecum auction. But, I dodged that bullet. I couldn’t shake the idea. Maybe the convertible 356 was a sign, I thought.

On the long drive home, with Charlie on the trailer behind, the plan started to take shape. Carl didn’t help deter me. In fact, he encouraged it. “You always wanted one, right,” he reasoned. “Why not now?”

“It’s simple. Julie will never let me to buy it,” I explained. “That’s why.”

“Come up with a plan that makes sense,” he pushed back. “Would you get rid of Charlie?,” he then asked.

“Would I get rid of Charlie? What? No. Absolutely not!,” I quickly responded. But, I would consider selling off the other cars to buy a convertible 356. Even if it was just a project car, I would be willing to almost clear the garage to justify it.

I have a very rusty original 914-6 that I bought about 7 years ago without an engine. Then after a few months I located the car’s original, numbers-matching, engine, and instantly knew that the car had to be restored. But the car has just sat since. I have collected a lot of major NOS parts gearing up for the restoration, but I am really too busy to undertake such a large project. “Would I sell the six?,” I thought. “Yes.”

What about my other 912? I bought a 1967 912 a few years ago, before I bought Charlie. It is at the shop having major rust work done. I plan to sell it when it is finished. But, that will be some time in the future.

The ’71 914-4 we call “Monkey Nut” (the name was given to the car by the previous owners) was scheduled to go to Austin with our oldest son, Stephen, at Thanksgiving. He is planning to put a six cylinder engine in the car. But, its departure from my garage does clear up space.

Then there are the parts. Lots and lots or parts. In fact, lots of parts doesn’t even begin to get at the amount of Porsche parts I have. “And, Julie is always complaining that I need to get rid of the parts,” I thought. “Maybe a plan that makes sense, well . . . makes sense.”

So we began to calculate as we traveled south from Chattanooga. By the time we got to Atlanta, we had a plan. I could sell off some stuff to fund the new purchase. The ’67 912 was excluded, since it will take another couple of years to finish the restoration. And “Monkey Nut” was not in play since Stephen was taking it. What did that leave? The 914-6, and parts. In total, I figured I could rustle together about $50,000. Certainly that would be enough for a project convertible 356, right?

Wrong! Once I came up with the initial figure I started searching the internet to see what 356 Cabriolets go for these days. Not a Speedster, mind you. Or even a Roadster. I knew those were probably out of the question. But, I honestly thought $50k would score a nice Cabriolet project.

Nope! I quickly found two project cars at about $90,000 each, one in California and one in Canada. They seemed overpriced. But the writing was on the wall. There was nothing even close to $50k. Nothing. Wow, Cabs have appreciated quite a bit. “Had the ship already sailed on my ever owning a 356?,” I wondered.

We stopped for dinner just south of Atlanta. I needed some comfort food.

Read the next part of the story HERE.